... Operations Services Department. Request for Proposal. Utility Billing Software

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1 City of Pleasanton Information Technology Division 123 Main St. Pleasanton, CA Operations Services Department Utility Billing Software.... Request for Proposal

2 Utility Billing Software Request for Proposals General Information The City of Pleasanton is a community of 68,755, situated within the Tri-Valley Region of the Bay Area in Northern California. The City provides a high quality and dependable potable water supply to the residents and businesses of Pleasanton. The City also provides round the clock sewer and storm drain service and maintenance for the community. The Utility Billing Division of the Operations Services Department (OSD) performs the billing for water and sewer accounts. It is a combined bill that is processed weekly, among eight separate meter reading/billing cycles and results in a bi-monthly billing cycle per customer. Portable hydrant meters (about accounts) are billed monthly based on mail-in meter reads. Total accounts within the current system include over 22,500 residential, commercial, and irrigation accounts. There is currently a 3-tier billing structure for residential water customers, with plans to add a fourth tier in Daily payment postings and billings are accomplished as tasks on a master calendar within the current billing system. This is a manual remittance process where payment stubs are scanned and posted to each individual account through the calendar task. The meter reading software/hardware is provided by Datamatic of Plano, Texas. Radio AMR - technology and is utilized to read an estimated 7,500 water meters. The remaining water meters are read manually. A Backflow Prevention Device program is also being administered for approximately 2,500 devices. Project Summary The OSD desires a Utility Billing/Management software application that will meet current core functions and future needs of the OSD and will integrate all aspects of utility services, including maintain accounts, billing, and collection; interface with AMR, Datamatic meter reading system, service order processing, and cash register/payment interface. Additionally, the City desires to implement newer technologies and processes such as: browser based client software, Internet customer access, running relational database Microsoft SQL 2005 (or newer), and the integration of desktop productivity tools - Microsoft Office Suite. At the end of this request for proposal process (RFP), the OSD will enter into a professional services agreement with the vendor that provides the best value for the utility billing solution and meets all the specifications of this RFP, including any options selected by the OSD. Page 2 of 15

3 If you have any questions about this proposal, please contact: Allen Hammond Information Technology Manager City of Pleasanton 123 Main St. Pleasanton, CA Office: Project Purpose It is expected that the technologies shall assist Utility Billing in a variety of utility management functions including, but not limited to: Replacement of the legacy Utility Billing software application, with a system that receives responsive support and exhibits a software maturation process that will integrate new technologies and processes as they become available in the industry. Improvements to reporting functions. Automation and streamline of the utility billing processes Web-based functions for customer account access via City web site. Real-time access on customer account activity, to include activity performed with web functions Provides a user friendly comprehensive system Data collection, reporting and record keeping assisting staff by reducing time and increasing efficiency in generating required reports. Greater customer convenience web access and efficient client software for CSR. Ability to incorporate with billing and customer service Ability to rapidly incorporate, new and unique rates. Separate billing for customers with multiple accounts. Meter inventory Page 3 of 15

4 Current Software/Hardware The current Utility Billing system is BillStar running on a Dell PowerEdge 2950 Server (XEON 5130 (2) Duo 2.0GHz CPU, 4GB RAM, 280GB HD RAID). The system is based on Microsoft SQL Server Approximately users accessing BillStar via LAN, by PC technology with specifications at the minimum; an Optiplex GX620 (Pentium D 3.4GHz, 2GB, 40GB HD, Integrated DVMT Video w/ 19 FPD). Where possible, the City would like to make use of existing hardware, however the need for Servers and Personal Computers that shall assure the maximum use of the software outweighs the desire to use existing hardware. Please address your recommendations for hardware to meet the performance needs of the Utility Billing Software. The City requires computers that optimize the performance of the technologies and ensures the longest useful life of the machines. The City shall have 8 workstations dedicated to the access and use of the application. In addition to, a desire to access the system from remote locations by supervisors, and other personnel who may need access. All workstations shall include a minimum of 19 monitor size. Response and Performance Expectations The submitted proposal must follow the rules; address all categories and performance dimensions within this RFP. Failure to complete and address all functional criteria and specifications may result in rejection of a proposal. Before submitting a proposal, vendors shall examine the specifications in order to understand all existing conditions and limitations. The vendor shall indicate in the proposal the total sum to cover the cost of all items included in the RFP. Executive Summary Provide a concise overview describing proposed solution Description of Organization and Qualifications Provide a description of the major business functions, history, and organizational structure of the Organization. Include a profile of the location of all offices, staffing and services provided and specify the office or location of the personnel that will be assigned to the City s account. Specify the number of years the Vendor has been in public sector software business. Provide a brief statement of the company s background demonstrating longevity and financial stability. Describe internal performance metrics used to quantify key customer support responsiveness, such as: Issues resolved on first call, average time to reach issue resolution, etc. Provide the following background information on the proposed Utility Billing software: Original Development, date of first release, date of most recent release. Experience on similar projects Summaries or brief descriptions of a minimum of three projects performed which are most related to requirements of this project. Limit descriptions to those most relevant to this project and most representative of the firm's capabilities. References must be for goods and Page 4 of 15

5 services provided within the past two years. Include the name of the client and a contact person, date of installation, software installed, any installation issues, and custom features or extensive report capabilities Implementation and Training This proposal shall include a detailed schedule, identification of a project manager, team members and key personnel with resumes attached for all personnel involved. Provide an installation plan as part of this proposal. This plan shall be detailed enough so that the OSD shall know every step of the installation process. Each task shall be broken out and described in detail. Describe the approach and resources needed to implement the proposed software. Attach a proposed implementation schedule with key activities and estimated milestones Provide user training approach that will properly prepare staff, supervisors and other personnel on the day-to-day use of the application; including reporting functions. Provide training that will properly prepare City Information Technology staff in the administration, management and any planned and unplanned maintenance. System Testing and Acceptance OSD cannot accept the technologies until it has validated that the vendor has met all requirements stated in this RFP. The vendor shall provide all labor and supervision for the installation and testing. OSD, working with the vendor, shall develop acceptance procedures to ensure the software is installed properly and accepted. All software provided shall be tested to confirm that it is compliant with the current specifications. All software is to be free from defects in design, material, workmanship, and is capable of sustained performance in the operating environment. All software shall pass the tests described below or have OSD declare that the objectives of the tests have been met by field operations. All of the software provided under this contract shall be subject to the following tests to confirm that they are: Free from operational defects, which affect performance. Compliant with the specifications. Delivered and accounted for. This includes all media, documentation, training, and support items. Page 5 of 15

6 Warranty and Post Implementation Support The vendor must warranty timely response and remediation of technical problems. If there is a system failure or other problems, OSD needs to be assured that the vendor shall respond immediately to correct problems so that the service is not disrupted in any way. The following maintenance issues should be responded to: Describe all support resources available. The vendor should provide support during OSD business hours that is capable of solving any software-related problem. Supply a copy of the maintenance agreement that is proposed. What shall the maintenance cover in terms of software and coverage dates? What services will the City receive with the maintenance program? Upgrades It is expected that upgrades shall be available to allow the OSD to take advantage of improvements in both software and hardware capabilities. The vendor shall provide regular upgrades to the software from date of implementation. Please describe the upgrade process. Pricing Provide detailed pricing of all cost associated to fully implement a successful operation of an Utility Billing System; to include cost of Application Software license fees, modification costs, Implementation, Training, Hardware, add-on 3 rd party Software, annual maintenance, Travel, Data Conversions, and any other anticipated costs. Scope of Work The City is interested in purchasing proven technologies and contracting with companies with excellent track records. OSD desires an integrated system and is interested in purchasing technologies (as needed), and the related services that shall ensure a fully functioning set of technologies meeting the required specifications. The vendor shall be responsible for all aspects of the installation. Vendor will perform an import/conversion of data from legacy system. Functional Criteria and Specification Requirements Respond to all aspects of the functional specifications and criteria that follow. Include a copy of the software licenses. OSD shall utilize proven technologies and products. The Functional Specification is for a Utility Billing and Management System. Page 6 of 15

7 Each function must be fully integrated into the OSD to allow for maximum flexibility. The City requires a product that is based in the Windows platform. The contractor must keep up with the latest appropriate version of Windows. Any deviations from the specifications or exceptions must be clearly noted in your proposal. OSD shall entertain other options and recommendations if they can improve upon the current requirements. Vendors are instructed to review and respond to each Functional Criteria and Specification Requirement in this RFP, by indicating each item with one of the following responses: Fully Compliant: Indicates that the vendor s standard software meets and/or exceeds the requirement Modification/Custom Software: Indicates that a software modification or custom software is required to meet and/or exceed this requirement. If there is a cost associated with this, list the dollar amount. Not Available: Indicates that the vendor software does not and cannot meet this requirement. General Integrate with General Leger and Accounts Payable for posting of bills, receipts, adjustments and refunds. Note: General Ledger uses Mitchell Humphrey software. The ability to allow customers via the internet (City s website) to view and make payments on utility bills, request service and process customer account changes Comprehensive utility reports that have the ability to be customized for specific UB users and departments Integrate with cashiering system. Note: Cashiering System is Active. The ability to completely interface with our current Collection company (Collection Bureau of America) On line validation and editing of customers, addresses, service locations, meters Ability to have a Central Name File that contains all persons having a financial relationship with the City. Ability to look at all monies owed from a single inquiry from all applications generating receivables Be a business process oriented application with customizable workflow. Page 7 of 15

8 Account/Customer Maintenance User definable work flow process for: New Account Set Up, Move- In/Move-Out Process, New Service Set Up, Account Inquiry Ability to provide for user defined customer and account classification codes (i.e., residential, commercial, etc.). Ability to record Move-in and close dates for an account Ability to record unlimited notes for an account Provide for billing an unlimited number of services (metered or nonmetered) per service location Ability to send bill to one customer on the account and late notices and shut off notices to a different customer on the account Ability to record unlimited contacts (spouse, tenant(s), alternate billing addresses, etc) Ability to track information through system by customer. Must be able to view all accounts that customer has had, current status of accounts and outstanding balance and have ability to drill down to account detail. Ability to view the outstanding total balance on an account as well as the balance broken down by service type, current balance and previous balance Ability to define an unlimited number of user-defined and maintained rate tables for each service Ability to define an effective date for rate tables Ability to define service rates that are based on flat fees, consumption based, consumption based with demand, per unit charge, percentage based or user-defined formula Ability to base charges for non-metered services such as sewer on water consumption from customer s water consumption. The system must provide the ability to base sewer charges that are dependent on water consumption on winter averages. Ability to define distribution of fees to multiple general ledger accounts based on user-defined account type, fee category, service type Ability to define through table entry, an unlimited number of service types and add, change and delete service types as required Page 8 of 15

9 Ability to establish "alerts" (cash only; lien exists; e.g.) on customer accounts with the following characteristics: All alerts are user definable, Unlimited number of alerts may be defined, Each alert has unique start and stop dates, User may define screens where alerts will appear Ability to associate a service location with a parcel number Ability to identify the number of dwelling units at a service location Ability to track information through system by location. Must be able to view: History of all accounts at that location, Current status of accounts, Outstanding balance, Drill down to detail Precise exception checking for routes completed Comprehensive calendar task manager with the ability to schedule daily tasks, billing, shut offs, payments, etc The ability to add files, pictures, notes to specific customer accounts The ability to store and apply gate codes for all accounts within our database while interfacing that info with Datamatic The ability to maintain existing directions on field services The ability to maintain unlimited history on a specific customer account or location The ability to run queries on accounts based on specific fields or missing fields The ability to internally audit accounts within the billing database looking for accounts that were initially set up incorrectly and currently have conflicting info Meters Ability to identify multiple meters at a service location Ability to view a history of all meters that have been installed at the service location. Ability to maintain meter attribute data including: Meter Number, Route, Sequence, Installation date, Begin Service Date, End Service Date, Services attached to the meter, Status, Free Form Comments, Current Account Number, Current Service Address, Unlimited User Defined Fields, Documents, Remote Documents, The ability to provide a faux meter edit using the file export from Datamatic Ability to define read types Page 9 of 15

10 Billing Support an unlimited number of billing cycles Ability to store meter data for touch and radio reads (i.e. transponder number, radio id, radio type, register id) Ability to enter stop and start dates for individual rate codes on an account Ability to charge for flat rate billings Ability to create special onetime charges with the option to assess and collect the charges over a user-defined period of time. Provide for consumption groups of services for billing (water and sewer). A single account with multiple meters can combine consumption for billing purposes. Ability to print user defined message on bills. The ability to process CASS certification for the US Postal service Report features after billing process specifying number of postal trays by carrier route The ability to get instant status on total UB web receivables, number of web UB accounts and website activity Specific, thorough Billing Exception Reports Weekly Billing Reports with the comprehensive breakdown of all credits, discounts, rebates, penalties The ability to compare city purchased water usage to what is actually billed based on meter readings billed to the City of Pleasanton The ability to suspend current billing within a 7 day period for an account that has a pending on or off service The ability to bill existing exception accounts that are NOT individually metered but are billed to a master meter tied to a number of individually metered accounts Ability to automatically add late penalties to delinquent accounts according to rate structure Ability to prorate bills for new accounts and closed accounts Page 10 of 15

11 Calculates final bills at any time subject to the workflow process and approvals established by the user. Ability to automatically apply deposits to a final bill Ability to bill by cycle and produce corresponding billing registers and journal entries. Ability to sort bills by zip code plus four additional digits to take advantages of available postage discount Ability to export bills to a file for 3rd party printing Ability to view and reprint a past bill at any time Ability to generate a pre-billing report to view billing amounts before actually billing accounts Provide for auto-pay option for customers to pay from customer s bank account. The system should create an ACH file that may be submitted to the bank for processing. Ability to import batch payment file from a lockbox payment facility Ability to scan payment information directly into the system using a bar code scanner Ability to support payment arrangements for customers to schedule payments for outstanding balances Ability to generate a report of all customers with payment arrangements showing scheduled due dates, amounts due and amounts paid Ability to define unlimited number of notices (late, past due, shut off, etc.) based upon user-defined minimum amounts due and number of days past due Ability to create late notices and automatically record event against account Ability to aggregate separate billings for a single customer to one bill statement Page 11 of 15

12 Inquiries Ability to display transaction history including bills, receipts, adjustments and refunds for an account Ability to filter history by date, transaction type Ability to change sort order of transaction history Ability to display details of transaction and drill down to transaction Ability to automatically track an unlimited number of events on an account, including: Billings, Payments, Meter Reads, Adjustments, Notes attached to the account, Documents attached to the account, Statements sent to the account, Activities attached to the account, Work Orders created for the account, Form letters mailed to the account, Credit transactions (NSF checks, late payments) Provide for displaying and/or printing any customer account history upon request. Ability to display outstanding balance by user-defined type of service, broken into aging categories Ability to generate a consumption report that shows top consumption users based upon: Date range, Desired number of customers to be reported, Consumption type Ability to generate a largest dollar amounts report that shows top revenue generators based upon: Date range, Desired number of customers to be reported, Charge category or categories Billing Calendar showing all critical dates in the selected month Technology.NET used in all applications Support for SQL Reporting Services Support for Microsoft SQL 2005 (or above) Support for Information Bridge Framework (IBF) Support for Windows 7 on Client PC s Provide a browser-based user interface, compatible with Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 and higher, accessible via Internet/Intranet. Page 12 of 15

13 Run server application on a Windows 2008 Server platform. Use commercially available geographic information datasets for its integrated GIS system. Provide multi-user functionality. City Provided Services The City desires to partner with the vendor during the implementation, but all design, data conversion, software installation, and training will be provided by the vendor. The City may provide or facilitate the following services Provide work space for the contractor Provide the necessary computers Ensure that staff is available for all phases of planning, implementation, and training Provide data in electronic format Provide proper implementation support Vendor Submittals A response to this RFP must include the following information: The name, address and telephone number of your company. Identification of the individuals and/or vendors comprising the team for this project and what specific role each will take in completing the work and their physical location. A summary of your experience completing similar projects completed within the past two years. Please provide examples of the design, equipment and results of these projects. Also include any names, addresses and phone numbers of clients involved with these projects. A detailed work plan describing your approach to design, installation, testing and training. The description should, at a minimum, include subcontractors, and a project schedule. Describe your training program. Provide detailed warranty and support information. A detailed listing of fees and costs to complete the project with separate costs for equipment and labor and on-going maintenance fees. Page 13 of 15

14 Vendors may include the following supplemental material You may provide any material not specifically required as supplemental information. Additional material may include the following and should be provided in the Appendix to the RFP: o o o o Additional reports, photos and/or descriptions of similar projects you have completed. Promotional material describing your firm and its services. Additional references. Manufacturer s literature. Selection Criteria Contract award will be based on pricing, performance and maintenance requirements. The following criteria shall be used to evaluate the proposals. The proven ability of the technology to meet the OSD s objectives and experience in similar installations with Utility Billing software and other technologies Understanding of the project and responsiveness to the RFP The track record (ability) of the Vendor to meet the implementation schedule The track record of the vendor to support their products and services Staff assigned to project Cost The City anticipates working with the most qualified vendor during the selection and post selection stage of the Project in order to assure the system design and equipment fully meets the City s needs. As a result, final cost of the system may vary from the submitted cost. Page 14 of 15

15 Submission Information Four hard copies and an electronic copy on CDROM of the response to the RFP must be submitted on or before December 15, 2009, at 2:00pm PST. Responses can be delivered by mail, or in person to: City of Pleasanton City Clerk Office P.O. Box Main St. Pleasanton, CA Attention: Allen Hammond RE: Utility Billing Software System It is the responsibility of the respondents to ensure that their responses arrive by the due date/time, regardless of method of submission. Note: fax copies or copies of the response to the RFP will not be accepted. Schedule of Activities Please note that dates are subject to change based on City of Pleasanton needs. Item Date RFP Issue Date November 2, 2009 Proposal Inquiry Deadline November 16, 2009 Response in Writing, to Questions November 23, 2009 RFP Submission Deadline December 15, 2009 Discussions with Finalists Week of January 11, 2009 Anticipated Award of Contract January 25, 2009 Page 15 of 15